"We are so set on making foreigners stars in America that's it's ridiculous. If they brought me over to Russia to fight, I'm the opponent. If they brought me to Denmark to fight, I'm the opponent. If they take me to London to fight, I'm the opponent. South Africa, I'm the opponent. You come to America and they try to make you into a superstar over American fighters. Are you for real," stated world-class trainer Derrick James, who is none too pleased at the fact that it appears as though American fighters are having a difficult time getting the same type of backing as foreign athletes. Check out what else James had to say!
DERRICK JAMES ON AMERICAN FIGHTERS NOT GETTING SUPPORT:
If I go over to Germany to fight, I would be the opponent and looked at as the guy going over there to lose by their fans, the networks, and their media. And in the back of their minds, they would all be rooting against me to lose. But we as Americans, we accept the American fighters that we have, but we make Pacquiao a star. We trying to make Triple G a star and Kovalev a star and Tyson Fury a star. We're trying to make all of these foreigners into stars and we have American fighters right here in America that have phenomenal talent and phenomenal gifts, yet we look other places to validate foreign fighters over our own. In every other sport and every other aspect in American life, this doesn't exist, but why does it exist in boxing?
We try to find somebody to be a star and, oh, just so happens he's not American. What is that about? You think about this, look how many Americans were rooting against Dominic Wade this past weekend, hoping Triple G would knock him out and keep his streak going. You look at a guy like Andre Ward, who was the last American to win a Gold Medal, meaning he is the last male fighter from your country to wear that USA on his chest and win the whole damn thing, yet, he is the most criticized fighter on the planet now that Floyd Mayweather is retired. What is that about? I really don't get it. Andre Ward is not the first nor last fighter who will be inactive due to promotional issues or injuries, but I look at how they talk about this American hero, this American star, as if he's some fly by night guy. This guy represented this country well and to this day, he represents the sport of boxing well and he is the most criticized fighters on the planet. So we have to get behind American fighters and continue to love America and try to make this country better and make boxing better and bring it back to where it was and I think that's what Al Haymon is doing, so just watch out for that.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]